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9/11 remembered locally

Retired New York firefighter recounts events he witnessed 10 years ago

Fire/rescue personnel from city and county departments listen to the invocation by St. Augustine Police Department Chaplain Matt Mitchell.

Retired New York firefighter Lt. Bob Aponte, in white cap, bows his head during the invocation.

Retired New York Firefighter Bill Brennock rings the newly placed bell 11 times at the end of the ceremony. Brennock was at the scene of the towers fire on Sept. 11, 2001, and has since retired.

Kelly Aponte said she can't imagine life had her father died on 9/11.

On the day terrorists crashed hijacked passenger jets into the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon and a rural Pennsylvania field, her father Bob had just finished his shift as a lieutenant at Engine Company 320, in Queens.

"We were sent to Shea Stadium as a staging area," said retired Lt. Bob Aponte, who stood in his NYFD uniform among local firefighters Sunday morning at the city's annual 9/11 ceremony held at the downtown fire station on the tragedy's 10th anniversary.

"They gave me five men and we all took a city bus to the World Trade Center."

Just before the bus full of firefighters arrived at the area quickly to be known as ground zero, the second plane hit the south tower.

For Aponte, memories of the day combine shock of an attack inside America and flashes of what he saw -- and did not see -- among the rubble.

"My fear for them is how they died," Aponte said. "How many people must have been burned and buried while dying."

In 2004, Aponte retired and moved with his family to St. Augustine after 20 years as a New York firefighter. Kelly was 3 on 9/11 and remembers little about the day. She attended Sunday's ceremony with her mother, Cynthia.

Gary Babcock was working on Marineland's beaches when the planes hit the Twin Towers.

"We had a radio and we were listening to the news," he said. "I remember before it happened, there were airplanes all over the place, and an hour later, the sky was empty."

Planes were grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration nationwide as the 9/11 attacks unfolded.

Babcock, who attended Sunday's memorial with his 7-year-old son, Jacob, worked on placing the old city bell at the fire station on Malaga Street. The bell served St. Augustine from 1902 to 1936. Bill Brennock, a retired New York City firefighter, rang the bell in recalling the fallen. City spokesman Paul Williamson said at least 200 people attended the ceremony coordinated by city Fire Chief Mike Arnold. Arnold's daughter, 17-year-old Heather, said her mother came to get her from elementary school the morning of 9/11.

"As I got older, I began to realize the impact of what happened," Heather said.

New St. Augustine resident Mary Eskelson attended the ceremony with her three children -- each born after 9/11. She was in college, at Utah State University on the morning of the attacks. Eskelson said she wants her children to understand the gravity of the day.

Ten years ago, City of St. Augustine firefighter Hardus Oberholzer was a teenager in his native South Africa, shocked as he watched events of 9/11 unfold on British television.

St. Augustine City commissioners Nancy Sikes-Kline and Errol Jones spoke at Sunday's event attended by local officials, including County Commission Chairman Ken Bryan.

Al-Qaida's 9/11 terrorist attack claimed more than 400 emergency workers, in addition to approximately 3,000 people who were killed from the crashing of the four hijacked planes.

Elizabeth McCord came to Sunday's fire house memorial with her 9-year-old son, William, whom she told about 9/11 after his questions about a neighbor in the Army having to leave home so often.

"Our neighbor kept having to go off to war," McCord said with teary eyes. "(William) wanted to know why. You never forget it. Even though they killed bin Laden, it didn't change it. It didn't make up for all those who lost their lives."

Kelly Aponte said she thinks sometimes about children who were not blessed to have a loved one return from the first response at ground zero.

"It's very sad," she said. "I can't imagine what it would have been like without my dad."